Last century however:

This:

led to this:

which led to:

and later, at Burning Man, in a Navada desert, to this:

and this:

I don’t have pictures from working with Public Dreams building lanterns, lighting fireworks or being inside a puppet rig for Parade of the Lost Souls. This was before we carried around a phone, let alone a phone with a camera.

I wandered away from this kind of work for all sorts of complicated reasons – personal and artistic. But there is no doubt that the years spent in the public spectacle world has been a huge part of my outlook on life and was incredibly transformative for a shy kid who couldn’t imagine running around a desert in a dance belt.

A few years ago, I started to get a hankering to return to outdoor spectacle work.

I missed the connection with the audience, I missed the potential of people just stopping and watching, I missed the liberation and pleasure that comes with performing and rehearsing outside.

But I also wanted to include the values intimacy and big ideas that I love in performance.